These Are The People And The Land #NoDAPL Is Fighting To Protect
Scenes from Standing Rock, North Dakota and nearby towns and communities.
Things were bad enough before America elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. Over the course of his campaign and previous decades of public life — both unprecedented in their combination of evil and stupidity — Trump has made it clear that he does not care for, or about, most of the 7.4 billion people with whom he shares a planet. Nor does he care about the environment; earlier this year, Trump called climate change a hoax “created by and for the Chinese” and threatened to pull out of the Paris climate accord signed by President Obama and nearly 200 countries in 2015.
Under the bloated shadow of his term, members of the Standing Rock Sioux, activists, and allies will continue to oppose the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, as they’ve done since April. The crude oil pipeline is a direct threat to the Missouri River, the primary water source for the Standing Rock reservation and for nearby communities in North Dakota. Trump has not made a public stance on its construction; nor has he given any indication that he would challenge the corporate interests that stand to gain billions from its existence. And so the fight will persist.
In recent weeks, photographer Nicholas Small has spent time documenting scenes in Standing Rock and in the surrounding towns that stand to be most affected by the pipeline. His photos of the land and its people are below.
A clear divide between law enforcement and protestors on November 2, 2016 at the Standing Rock Native Indian Reservation.
People rode in canoes and swam across a small section of the Missouri River to form a line in front of law enforcement who were standing on sacred burial grounds. Soon after, protesters were sprayed with mace and shot with rubber bullets.
A Native elder sits and prays on a tree as protestors — or as some call them, “Water Protectors” — head to the Missouri River for a demonstration.
Lynnana in her father's truck in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
Cannon Ball, ND.
New people showed up to the camp every single day. This man set up his tent and a tarp above it in preparation for the winter. He plans to stay as long as it takes to stop the pipeline from running under the river.
Zach, 10 years old, sits outside of his grandmother’s home in Cannon Ball. He dreams of becoming an astronaut and owning a house in Bismarck, ND when he’s older.
Sacred Stone Camp sits along a section of the Missouri River.
Horse Warrior.
A young Native man stands on the frontlines at Standing Rock, North Dakota.
People rushed from the camp to the frontlines, helping in any way that they could.
A Lakota Native man poses for a picture while smoking a cigarette in the main camp.
Kash Jackson served in the Navy. Based on what he saw in the news, he felt passionate about coming to Standing Rock to help protect a people.
After a long day of chopping wood, helping set up tipis, and doing other work around the main camp, a young man relaxes on his father’s pick-up truck as the sun goes down.
A Lakota Native from South Dakota ventured up north to show support at Standing Rock’s main camp.
Cannon Ball, ND.